Talk about a doomed production: after lengthy legal battles, The Crow remake was set to move forward, but over the years it has lost a number of directors, with the most recent being F. Javier Gutierrez. Corin Hardy (The Hallow) is the current director for the troubled project.

It has also lost a number of cast members, with both Luke Evans and most recently Jack Huston pulling out of playing the role of Eric Draven (made famous by Brandon Lee’s superb performance in Alex Proyas’ original film). The remake has been up and down for years, and now a final mighty blow may have halted the film for good, or for the foreseeable future anyway.

Screen Daily reports that pre-production has just shut down at Pinewood Cardiff, with the crew being told to leave the premises, after months of preparation.

While the latest delay to the anticipated film correlates with the financial woes of the film’s US backer Relativity Media, a source close to Relativity told ScreenDaily that the company still “intends to move forward with producing and releasing The Crow”.

Staff at Pinewood Cardiff are understood to be awaiting instruction as to the timetable for the troubled remake, which lost Jack Huston as its lead in June, and Luke Evans prior to that.

Replacement cast has yet to be announced on the action-fantasy, set to be directed by Corin Hardy (The Hallow), but crew working on the production confirmed to ScreenDaily that Andrea Riseborough had been expected to take on the role of the film’s villain, Top Dollar.

Among the film’s stable of Hollywood producers are Edward R. Pressman, who produced the original film in the franchise, Kevin Misher, Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh, and Jeff Waxman. Relativity president Tucker Tooley and Harvey and Bob Weinstein are executive producers. Writers include Cliff Dorfman (Warrior) and Nick Cave.

While a number of industry connected to the project expressed optimism to Screen that the production would still go ahead, the development comes at a time when uncertainty surrounds a number of Relativity-backed productions.

Matt Wavish

A keen enthusiast and collector of all horror and extreme films. I can be picky as i like quality in my horror. This doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a classic, but as long as it has something to impress me then i'm a fan. I watch films by the rule that if it doesn't bring out some kind of emotive response then it aint worth watching.